Low-Carb Black Forest Ice Cream (Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Vegan)

 

The weather is still warm and beautiful, so I have a good reason to publish another ice cream recipe. This rich and flavorful chilly treat is guaranteed to satisfy your sweet cravings without any insulin rush. The luscious combination of chocolate and cherry is familiar from the Black Forest cake. This time as ice cream, vegan and low-carb. What else can you ask for?

 

Tips for making this ice cream

All the ingredients, especially coconut milk, should be chilled.

It’s good to mix the erythritol with the cherry flavor and coconut milk before adding the rest of the ingredients, so that the erythritol dissolves as much as possible. When the cocoa powder is added, the mass thickens slightly, and the erythritol doesn’t dissolve that easily.

I usually use cheese slicer for grating chocolate. It’s easy and quick, you just have to be extra careful not to grate your fingers as well.

I prefer to use very dark chocolate. In this recipe I have used 90% Mild from Lindt. It’s very dark, but it has a milder taste than some other brands. Naturally you can use your preferred chocolate, but I recommend very dark chocolate for this dessert.
 

 

My experiments with this ice cream

I wanted to have chocolate ice cream with a twist. Which means that I wanted to combine chocolate with some other flavor. I was thinking of Black Forest Cake and cherries, but since cherries are high in carbs, I had to use cherry flavor. Fortunately I found quite a natural one without artificial stuff.

First experiments I made with a combination of coconut milk and heavy cream. That was delicious, but I wanted to have a dairy-free version. So, I omitted the heavy cream and used only coconut milk. The result was rich and tasty even without heavy cream.

In my first experiments I combined all the ingredients at once, mixed them shortly and then poured into the ice cream maker. Otherwise fine, but in the ready ice cream you could feel the erythritol. Yes, the familiar gritty mouthfeel again. Whipping first the erythritol with cherry flavor and coconut milk helped dissolve the erythritol.

Well, I did one version with only heavy cream too. First I whipped the cream with erythritol so that the mixture formed soft peaks. Then I added other ingredients. The cocoa powder made the mass a real thick mousse, something you cannot put into an ice cream maker. This version was working perfectly as low-carb Black Forest mousse, but not as ice cream. I also tried to freeze it as such, so kind of a no-churn ice cream, but I wasn’t satisfied with the result.

I also tried this ice cream without first whipping the heavy cream, just whisking everything together, but that didn’t bring good results. Pure coconut milk brought the best results, or half coconut milk, half heavy cream.

At first I was using too much erythritol. I used 2/3 cup (160 ml) and the ice cream was too sweet. I reduced the amount to 1/2 cup (120 ml) and that was perfect.

Instead of cherry flavor I tried Torani Black Cherry syrup in one batch, but since I’m not in favor of Splenda (sucralose), I soon changed back to the more natural cherry flavor.

In this recipe I have used regular non-organic unsweetened cocoa powder which gives a nice and smooth flavor. With my favorite cocoa powder organic cocoa powder from Now Foods the ice cream turned out too bitter, so I don’t recommend to use it for this ice cream.

Low-Carb Black Forest Ice Cream (Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Vegan) 1 can = 13.5 fl. oz. = 400 ml organic coconut milk 1 tablespoon cherry flavoring 1/2 cup = 120 ml = 65 g Confectioner’s Style Swerve OR powdered erythritol 1/4 cup = 60 ml = 1 oz = 28 g unsweetened cocoa powder 1/3 cup = 80 ml = 1 oz = 28 g grated dark chocolate (preferably at least 85% cacao)   Directions Mix the coconut milk, cherry flavor and erythritol in a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and mix gently. Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker bowl and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions. Serve immediately with whipped cream (or with vegan alternative) and grated dark chocolate (count extra carbs if needed) and freeze the rest if something left.

 


 

Nutrition information	Protein	Fat	Net carbs	kcal
In total:	12.1 g	82.8 g	23.3 g	903 kcal
Per serving if 4 portions in total:	3.0 g	20.7 g	5.8 g	226 kcal
Per serving if 6 portions in total:	2.0 g	13.8 g	3.9 g	150 kcal

 

 

Tips for variation

My favorite complement to this ice cream is kirschwasser. Traditional Black Forest cake contains also kirschwasser. Well, it makes this ice cream for adults only. If you add kirschwasser it might be a good idea to add more sweetener. For me 2/3 cup (160 ml) erythritol was satisfactory in this case. If you cannot find kirschwasser, brandy, cognac or rum are good substitutes.

You can also make the ice cream without kirschwasser, and for adults’ portions pour some kirschwasser for sauce.

Other variations below. Some of them are higher in carbs, so please take that into account if you have to restrict the carb count to minimum.

To the ice cream mass you can add:

• Sugar-free cherry jam (though still relatively high in carbs — use only a little!)
• Tart cherry butter — might need more sweetener since the tart cherry butter is real tart, as you can guess from the name
• Chopped fresh cherries
• Chopped dried cherries which are first soaked in vodka, kirschwasser or rum. For non-alcoholic version you can soak the cherries in a combination of rum flavor and water. You can add a few drops of liquid stevia for extra sweetness
• Rum for adults or rum flavor for non-alcoholic ice cream
• Chopped nuts or almonds.

If the cooling effect of erythritol is too much for you, reduce the amount of erythritol and add some stevia. Vanilla stevia might be worth trying as well.

 


 

When googling the carb count in 1 cup (240 ml) of sweet cherries (with pits) I found counts between 18-22 grams of effective carbs. Generally speaking 1 cherry has 1 gram net carbs. Since cherries are quite high in carbs that’s why the cherry flavoring plays an important role in this low-carb ice cream.